VIDEO: Oregon Police Beat And Tazer Defenseless Man

McMinnville, Oregon Police brutally assaulted a man who was neither being arrested nor accused of any crime, according to dashboard camera footage and an internal police review recently acquired by Portland’s Newschannel 8.

Hipolito Aranda was watching the police conduct a DUI investigation on February 13th, 2010, when he was approached and frisked by Sgt. Tim Heidt. Though Aranda offered no resistance, Heidt handcuffed him, threw him to the ground, and began punching him repeatedly all around his body. The video footage corroborates this narrative of events:

Newschannel 8 Reporter Kyle Iboshi reports that, according to the internal McMinnville Police report, “Heidt did not have probable cause or evidence of a threat that would justify the initial frisk.” Moreover, “There was no visible actions on Hipolito’s part that warranted the aggressive take-down used in this situation,” and the officer’s account of the events “is extremely troubling even if not deceitful.” Heidt had accused Aranda of resisting arrest, but a jury cleared Aranda.

The ordeal was terrifying for Aranda. “I thought I was going to die,” he said. Though Aranda is currently pursuing a civil rights suit over the matter, Sgt. Heidt remains on duty.

This is the second older case of police brutality to come to public attention in recent weeks. In Berkeley, California, two police officers nearly killed a man for asking to read the ticket they were (incorrectly) assigning him before he signed it.